The Joint Action Committee in support of the UNI Employees struggle organised a gate meeting on January 22, 2008 to celebrate the defeat of the hostile take over bid of their company by Subhash Chandra. CGPI leader Comrade Bijju Nayak, CPI leader Comrade D Raja, and veteran journalist Anil Chamadia were amongst those who felicitated the UNI workers on this hard won victory.

Earlier, the Company Law Board had declared the take over of UNI by Subhash Chandra’s Media Vest as illegal. The gist of the judgement is that the take-over has changed the character of the company and the entire exercise suffers from lack of transparency. Justice S Balasubramanian delivered the ruling in this case. The judgement declares the transfer of shares to Subhash Chandra's Media Vest null and void. It said the Company would forthwith rectify its register of Members by deleting the name of Media Vest.

“I declare that the allotment of the impugned shares to Media Vest as null and void. I also declare that in the absence of transparency in calling for offers the entire exercise of the company in constituting the Committee, its deliberations, recommendations etc as null and void. Consequently, Media Vest ceases to be a member and, therefore, it has become ineligible to have its nominees on the Board. Accordingly, its nominees shall cease to be additional directors with immediate effect,” the judgement said.

Subhash Chandra is a onetime rice trader turned media baron and Chairman of Essel Group. He is the owner of Zee TV. Other interests include packaging, theme parks, lotteries and cinema multiplexes. He has recently started the Indian Cricket League.

The case against the hostile take over had been filed in the Company Law Board by the Ananda Bazaar Patrika (ABP) group, which has a minority share in UNI along with other newspaper groups. The ABP and some other shareholders were opposed to Subhash Chandra's Media Vest taking over the massive assets of UNI, including over a thousand crore worth of real estate in New Delhi and other places, through manipulating the meetings of the Board of Directors.

It may be recalled that in September 2006, Subhash Chandra's Media Vest bought majority stakes in UNI, through back room deals with two or three top officials of the UNI. He immediately announced that 650 workers (over half the work force) would be retrenched. It was clear that the aim of the takeover was multifold.

• To get control of the real estate assets of UNI, especially the land in New Delhi and other places.
• To convert UNI, a news agency which had earned a reputation over nearly 50 years as a news agency which was not tied to this or that business group into one which will now be controlled by a single business group. This would mean that so many small and medium newspapers all over India, which depended for news on agencies like PTI and UNI would now only have one option — PTI.
• l To covert UNI from a no profit no loss news agency, as it was first established in the fifties, into an agency for providing maximum profits to Media Vest. This would also mean that small and medium newspapers would lose a reasonably cheap source of news.

It is to the credit of the workers of UNI that they understood the real aims of the UNI management as well as Subhash Chandra. Right from September 2006, the UNI employees Union, began a militant struggle to defend not only their rights, but also the institution of the UNI which they had contributed over decades to establish. They knew that their enemy was powerful and had powerful support in the Central Government. In a multi pronged way, revealing the mobilising ability of the working class, the UNI employees established a Joint Action Committee consisting of both employees as well as all forces who were interested in defending UNI as an institution and the rights of workers. A powerful campaign, involving gate meetings, rallies, as well as engaging all political forces in discussion on the issue was carried out.

Now, with Subhash Chandra's hostile take over bid defeated, the UNI employees have to take stock of where their struggle is at. They have to chart the course of struggle for the coming period, wherein the company has been turned into a loss making one as a result of the policy of the management over the past five years. They have to make sure that the institution is revived and strengthened. People's Voice hails the just struggle of UNI employees.